TV host Aaron Harber's Golden Run parcel got a little more golden Tuesday night, winning support from the Erie Board of Trustees for annexation into the town.

But the 3-1 vote -- Mayor Joe Wilson and Trustee Jonathan Hager were absent -- was somewhat lackluster and filled with caveats. Several of the trustees said they would support annexation of the 320-acre parcel north of Arapahoe Road, and bounded by 119th Street and County Line Road on the west and east, but were not at all decided on the specific project Harber is proposing for the land.

Golden Run calls for a dense community of multi-family, multi-story buildings housing up to 38,000 people and playing host to 2.5 million square feet of commercial space. Harber said he envisions the project as an innovative carbon-neutral community that also acts as a vital jobs magnet for the town.

But Trustee Mark Gruber said the scale of Golden Run needs to be reined in before it will garner his approval.

"I do not support 40,000 people on that piece of property, and I do not support 17-story buildings or 25,000 dwelling units," Gruber said. "I am going to support this vote tonight because I want to move forward and give Mr. Harber a chance to change his plans."

Trustee Janice Moore, the lone vote against annexation, said the plan for Golden Run is "totally urban" and not in keeping with the kind of community Erie is. Trustee Joe Carnival said he would need a lot more information about Harber's plans before getting behind them, but he said Tuesday's annexation decision is just a first step and in no way allows anything to be developed on the property.

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"Just saying no to something like this without seeing all those details is irresponsible," Carnival said.

Harber was undeterred after the vote, saying his team must now do the hard work of explaining the benefits and attractions of Golden Run to Erie's 20,000 residents.

"When the entire town sees all the benefits Golden Run will offer, we believe they will be very excited about it," he said. "We appreciate the concerns of those who are neighbors, and those all will be addressed. We believe those nearest Golden Run will be the ones using the trails, going to restaurants, shopping and using all the other amenities."

Harber said some of the environmentally sustainable ideas embedded in the project's plans -- including state-of-the-art, energy-efficient buildings and a standalone wastewater treatment facility -- are enough to attract retail tenants and commercial interests from around the country interested in being part of a cutting-edge community. He also said Golden Run's intention to bring ultra-fast Internet -- speeds 100 times greater than what is commonly available today -- will bring "extraordinary economic development and lifestyle benefits to everyone."

He encouraged the project's detractors to keep an open mind and make a final decision on Golden Run once they have all the facts.

Plenty of detractors were in the Erie Town Hall audience Tuesday, most decrying Golden Run's proposed density and traffic impacts and raising questions about where all the water would come from to service those living and working there.

Resident Kit Wagner said she moved to Erie to escape urbanization and that Golden Run runs counter to the quiet suburban lifestyle most people cherish in the town. Efforts to attract new retail opportunities to Erie should focus on the downtown area rather than creating a new commercial "hub" off of 119th Street and County Line Road, she said.

"I think putting in a little metropolitan area in our rural community is not appropriate," Wagner said. "What happened to Old Town?"

Resident Christine Reid, a former Camera reporter, said putting tall buildings near Erie Municipal Airport, where small planes take off and land every day, is unsafe. She said she's not against commercial growth in town, but there are better areas to target for that kind of development.

"There's a right way to do it -- I-25, Highway 7 -- there are good places to put that commercial development," Reid said.

But not all the talk about Golden Run was negative. George Anagnost, chief operating officer of The Vesica Group in Westminster, said his e-commerce development company finds merits in the project's emphasis on technology companies and providing high Internet speeds.

"We are high-tech, and we feel we could fit into the venue here," he said.

Scott Rodwin, principal of Rodwin Architecture in Boulder, said Golden Run represents an intelligent way of planning a community rather than allowing auto-dependent habits to dictate hackneyed land-use patterns.

"When it's not well thought out, you get Westminster, Broomfield and Rock Creek," he said. "You get sprawl."

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